Yet again, another computer question...
 

I have a WD My Book Essential external hard drive I was trying to use for backing up my wife's computer. The software in it makes it a pain to use.
What she wants is to be able to locate individual files and download them to her computer hard drive easily. The WD software doesn't allow that to happen, or if it does I sure can't figure it out.
Is there a way I can wipe the WD clean by reformatting it and just use it as an external HD?

Mac or PC?

But the answer is yes.

Yeah just format it.

Make sure you get all the partitions.

A lot of times that "extra" software lives on a 2nd partition.

It's a PC.
Would it make any difference if I format it using Win 7 vs my computer which is running Vista 64?
I don't think so but you never know...

Thanks.

OK. I hooked it up to my computer and used the WD software to format the drive.
It is now showing a new folder 'k' which is empty.
I had to run the unlocker program to get into the drive itself, but I don't think that'll be a problem for my wife to run.
I think the new folder will work as a drive for her designs now.
I'll keep you posted in the next couple of days.

I use BackBlaze Online Backup & Data Backup Software | Backblaze and have recommended to family and friends and not one is disspointed.
Unlimited storage space and its all automatic, then you can get any or all of your files from anywhere..


Good luck

I pull the files off then write 1's and 0's over the HD with killdisk in DOS.

Just to update...I went in and disabled the 'lock' so the drive doesn't have to be unlocked each time. It is hooked up via USB and she's able to drag and drop files to the new folder that was created when it formatted itself.
I think we have a winner.
Thanks for the help on this one PPOT.
Now the quilting can continue unimpeded.

for a windows pc, look for synctoy or sync toy on the microsoft website. it's a free tool. you can click a button and it will copy all of the files in folders that you choose to another folder that you choose. You can tell it to keep more than one copy if you want, and you can have it only copy the files that have changed since the last "backup".

You can essentially semi-automate things.

I just read up on that sync toy Steve, ran it by the boss and she's all for giving it a try. I think it'll really add to her enjoyment of creating designs and keeping track of them. Thanks for the suggestion.